Alexander Smolyaninov, Managing Partner of First Bit Middle East, shared the results of the year and plans for 2022
2021 was a significant year for us as we started to scale our business in the UAE: we opened another office in Dubai, which focuses on automation for the construction industry, and we've also opened an office in Abu Dhabi.1. How do you evaluate the year 2021 in terms of business results?
We've grown by 35% this year. In 2022 we are planning to grow by 50% more, partially due to entering the market of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
I would unite these together under the umbrella term of cloud technologies.2. If you could describe the past year with three technologies or technological breakthroughs for yourself, it would be... For example, in 2020, Zoom and Google Meet were such discoveries for everyone.
There are many advantages of cloud ERP solutions, such as: to be able to work from anywhere, reliability, cost-effectiveness, scalability.
Our customers increasingly choose cloud ERP solutions because of their high IT security and system resilience, as well as their affordability. At the same time, it is becoming difficult and expensive for companies to maintain and protect their own IT infrastructure by themselves, as the competition between those who create this protection and those who try to overcome it grows constantly.
This year we were growing rapidly and had to adapt our company structure to accommodate it. The challenge was the reorganisation of the business, with a separate division for new territory development, as well as a new division with a focus on industry specialisation and several other divisions aimed at developing the Company in the UAE market. It is important to note that we grow our managers out of our employees; it is hard but had proven to be successful for the team and the company as a whole. Now our team in the UAE has 80+ employees, and we continue to grow actively.3. What challenges company had faced in 2021? What was the biggest challenge for you?
Our main achievements are the success and satisfaction of our customers. For 2021, our support team exceeded the SLA target, which was actually 93%, i.e. 93% of support requests were dealt with according to the SLA. Also an important quality indicator is the average score of 9.3 from our clients, where 10 is the maximum level of satisfaction.4. What achievements for this year would you like to celebrate the most? Name successful projects, events, and other results of the past year that you are especially proud of?
I want to express a great appreciation to our team for this outstanding result, and we will continue to work on the high quality of our services in the future!
Our team is multinational and culturally diverse, as in many companies in the UAE.5. Only people make you number one - First Bit's slogan. Who are these people in the UAE, can you tell us about them?
It is very important for a business to have strong and competent employees, it is like a group mountain climbing, when the whole team has to move at the speed of the slowest person in the bunch. Random people don't stay with us, only those who really care about their own development and the success of our clients. This is why all our specialists are permanently growing as professionals, always aware of the latest trends and relevant technologies. We pay special attention to and invest in the personal and professional development of our employees, and they, in turn, make our clients' businesses stronger and help us achieve better results, and our company grows as well.
We are currently delivering several successful projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and next year we are aiming to scale in this market.6. What plans does the company have for 2022? Are you planning to expand to the Persian Gulf countries?
We have already released the Arabic localization of our ERP product in 2021, which will be our advantage for our further expansion to Gulf countries. However, there is still a lot of work to be done, and we are now actively preparing the system to support the new legislative and reporting changes in Saudi Arabia.
A challenging and controversial year is coming to an end. We are entering a new period with hope and ambitious plans.7. What would you like to wish your employees, partners, and clients in 2022?
Let the coming year 2022 strengthen our belief in success, and let luck prevail for all of us!
We wish you development and financial growth, stability and responsible business partners, the realization of new projects, and conquering new heights!
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